Maps and Navigation

In my youth, the days before widespread cell phones or GPS (did GPS even exist back then?) - we learned how to navigate with paper maps. Teachers in elementary school chanted Never Eat Slimy Worms while we pointed to the corresponding directions - learning to orient our "noses to North" based on the sun's position in the sky. (It always rises to the East and sets in the West!) This went hand in hand with our Left and Right distinctions - and was just commonplace. These seem like old timey nonsense - but it works! I can still check the time and the sun's position and know which way is which. I am also blessed with an incredible sense of direction - as long as I am outside. (It is trickier for me inside a building like a hospital.) If I can't tell exactly where we are (for example - at night in a city?) I can still navigate back to our starting point - even if I take different roads or alleys to get there - because I have a general sense of the direction we need to go to. It helps with finding my car in a parking garage as well. I don't know what causes it - I was raised in the same household as my sister who gets lost in her own town! But, I can say there are likely factors that contributed to my navigational sense. I grew up rural - with trails all over the mountain - and was free to wander most of the time. So - I pinned the location of "home" in my mind and found all the ways back to it. My parents taught me to navigate with paper maps - the NY Atlas and Gazetteer, those ancient state maps that fold up if you keep the creases correct, and eventually MapQuest - where I learned the value of an odometer. This skill came in useful when I started driving on my own! I grew up in a time where everyone was a bit of a cartographer - and anyone asking for directions could get a step by step break down - often with a rough sketch visual to accompany it. My father stressed the importance of observing your surroundings - not just in the woods - but everywhere - and that skill has no doubt improved my ability to navigate with ease through terrain I have seen before. Even if it has been years since I have seen an area, I can recall landmarks and locations and find my way. Throughout my life, I have seen people who struggle with navigation. And, yes - I have seen people way too dependent on their GPS who are at a total loss when they run out of battery or cell signal. My sons do not have much interest in learning to navigate - and I am by no means Moana or any other wayfinder who can navigate solely by the stars - but I consider myself pretty apt at navigation. And here is an interesting article from the BBC, written last year by Christine Ro, titled "How to improve your sense of direction" that is worth a read if you want to know more: